Omnicide
“ecocide,” the killing of ecosystems, is inadequate to describe the devastation of Australia’s fires. “This is something more, this is the killing of everything. Omnicide.”
Seven weeks ago I decided to stop looking at the news. It was relatively easy. I had already given up on cable, so the rest was easy. Denying myself the enjoyment of watching MSNBC host Ari Melber, because of his rap references, has been hard.
I thought everything would get better, yet, it is all as bad as ever. The news that is.
The last edition of this idiosyncratic missive was called Ablaze, and that’s exactly what Australia still is. On fire. “How does a nation adapt to its own murder?” The title of an opinion piece by Australian novelist Richard Flanagan, in Sunday’s NYTimes. This is an extraordinary piece of prose, the problem is, it’s all true.
Flanagan uses a line that I cannot get out of my head:
To describe this terrifying new reality, a terrifying new idea: “omnicide.” As used by Danielle Celermajer, a professor of sociology at the University of Sydney specializing in human rights, the term invokes a crime we have previously been unable to imagine because we had never before witnessed it.
Ms. Celermajer argues that “ecocide,” the killing of ecosystems, is inadequate to describe the devastation of Australia’s fires. “This is something more,” she has written. “This is the killing of everything. Omnicide.”
Flanagan has been described by The Economist of being "considered by many, to be the finest Australian novelist of his generation"; the New York Review of Books describes Flanagan as "among the most versatile writers in the English language. That he is also an environmental activist and the author of numerous influential works of nonfiction makes his achievement all the more remarkable."
Which is why this piece it is such a profound read, if you want to inform yourself on where things are heading.
The name of the future is Australia:
Billions of dead animals and birds bloating and rotting. Hundreds of Indigenous cultural and spiritual sites damaged or destroyed by bush fires, so many black Notre Dames — the physical expression of Indigenous Australians’ spiritual connection to the land severed, a final violence after centuries of dispossession.
Everywhere there is a brittle grief, and it may be as much for what is coming as for what is gone.
He rails against the Australian coal industry but its done in a way that feels balanced, informative, but yes opinionated. However, opinions matter.
What if Greta Thunberg’s ‘our house is on fire’ , the phrase she coined at Davos in 2019, yes, a year ago, is actually Australia now; it doesn’t get much clearer than this:
You say nothing in life is black or white. But that is a lie. A very dangerous lie. Either we prevent 1.5C of warming or we don’t. Either we avoid setting off that irreversible chain reaction beyond human control or we don’t.
Either we choose to go on as a civilization or we don’t. That is as black or white as it gets. There are no grey areas when it comes to survival.
We all have a choice. We can create transformational action that will safeguard the living conditions for future generations. Or we can continue with our business as usual and fail.
That is up to you and me.
And Richard Flanagan too, who leaves us with real despair:
The dairy farmer Farran Terlich, whose properties in the South Coast were razed in a firestorm that killed two of his friends, described the blaze as “a raging ocean.” “These communities are destroyed across the board,” he said, “and most people are running dead.”
Dead, too, is a way of life.
Many homes will not be allowed to be rebuilt in threatened areas. Where they are allowed, they may not be affordable because of new building codes; if built, they may not be insurable. Local economies, like local ecosystems, may never recover.
In happier fire news there have been some heroic efforts to help; benefit concerts are being used to raise funds as local bands play pub gigs and international stars including Alice Cooper, Olivia Newton-John, Queen and popular children's group the Wiggles (I’ve actually been to a Wiggles gig) organize concerts in the coming weeks with all proceeds donated to fire relief causes. This is not going away.
Tomorrow, let’s take a look at the latest on the coronavirus… with your afternoon tea.